Technical Field
The present disclosure pertains to the art of cooking and, more particularly, to a range including a cabinet housing an oven and supporting, for relative vertical movement, a suspended cooktop.
Background
In the art of cooking, both slide-in and drop-in ranges are known. Basically, both types of ranges are designed to be situated in a space or cut-out provided along a length of a kitchen countertop, with the cut-out including an open front provided between lower cabinetry in the case of a slide-in range. In either case, the range includes at least one oven cavity supported within a cabinet, as well as a cooktop fixedly mounted to the cabinet. In many situations, the cooktop of the range is configured to extend over edge portions of the countertop about the cut-out, such as with slide-in or drop-in ranges including glass cooktops. Under these circumstances, the range must be positioned relative to two horizontal surfaces, i.e., the floor and the upper countertop surfaces, with a rather low level of tolerance. With the oven cavity and the cooktop both being fixed relative to the cabinet and each other, any vertical repositioning is accomplished through adjustable feet which enable the oven cavity and cooktop to be selectively raised or lowered in unison.
Even though countertops are generally manufactured in standard heights, this mounting configuration must take into account variable factors, including thermal and mechanical loadings, which can result in varying assembly dimensions. For instance, even if the floor and the countertop are initially level such that the range can be properly adjusted when initially installed, various factors can alter this configuration such that the distance from the floor to the top surface of the countertop can change over time. These variations can place damaging loads on the cooktop, particularly in the case of a range with a glass cooktop.
With the above in mind, it is desired in accordance with the present disclosure to provide a range including a cooktop module which can be vertically adjusted relative to a remainder of the range, thereby enabling the cooktop to readily accommodate for manufacturing and operating variations.